Glee steak fills my stomach like you fill my heart

**Just a little thought I got whilst rewatching the Brittana and Maribel Breadstix scene again.**

She was grading her students' final papers when her phone rang. She was at a point where her first thought was to ignore the annoying chimes, but it was her mother's ring tone so she opted to take the call and not be berated when she next saw her. Sighing, she put down her pen and picked up her iPhone, taking the call and getting ready for the lecture she was about to receive. It happened every time.

_"Would you look who answered their phone for the first time in __**eight **__days! Santanita! How many times do I have to remind you that you have parents who love hearing from their only daughter once in a while? Do I have to remind you that the last time we saw you was __**two weeks **__ago? I was worried sick! Estás bien?" _

If it wasn't the certain beating Santana would get if she laughed, she would have. Her mother tended to exaggerate a lot, and now was not an exception.

"Mama.." she sighed, "I'm fine. I understand that not hearing from me could worry you, but I'm a grown woman, I can take care of myself. I've been so busy these past days, with grading finals and all, and most times I forget to charge my phone. You know how I am, mama. Lo siento."

_"Are you ignoring us because there's a girl in your life now? Because I would like to meet my potential future daugher in law-"_

**"**No mama! There's nobody in my life right now. Unless you count the old man who lives above me and stalks me, no me gusta." You could say he was creepy, but that would be an understatement. He was always in the elevator every time Santana stepped in as she got home from work. She was pretty sure he knew her schedule by heart.

_"Will I have to ask your brother to file a restraining order against him? Because I will, Santana, you know how men can be these days."_

"No, mama. He's completely harmless, besides, I'm sure he's got a bad hip, so even if he _did _try anything, he wouldn't get very far."

_"If you say so, mija. So me and your father were wondering if you would like to come to dinner with us tomorrow. It's been a while since we've had family time, and Andre isn't working, so we'd really love it if you came. Por favor?" _

Santana rolled her eyes, her mother always made her feel guilty that she didn't spend enough time with them, but she adored her family and she really did miss them a lot.

"Fine, I'll come. I still have to get Andre back for setting me up with a girl who didn't even know the difference between a touchdown and a layup." What? She was an avid football fan, could you blame her?

She heard her mother stifle a laugh down the line and smirked. She knew her so well. _"Sí, sí. Well your father has been wanting to go to some place downtown for a while, so I'll text you the address and you can meet us there. How does eight sound?"_

"Eight is good, mama. See you tomorrow. Te amo."

_"Buenos noches, mija. Te quiero mucho."_

"By the way I'm ordering shrimp since you're paying!"

_"Of course, Santana." _Her mother's laugh faded as she ended the call and sighed. Guess she had to look through her _many _clothes for tomorrow's family affair.

….

Pulling up to the address her mother gave her, she couldn't help but be impressed by the fancy looking style of the restaurant. It looked small, but the smaller the better, privacy was so important to Santana.

After parking her car, she walked inside and scanned the place for her family, immediately spotting them at the table in the far corner. Telling the hostess that her family had already arrived, she made her way over, smiling at her mother who shot up from her seat and met her half way.

"I've missed you, mija." Was all she heard before she was being pulled into a tight hug and struggling to breathe. Over her mother's shoulder she saw her father laughing and getting up from his seat to come and rescue her.

"Honey, I think you're crushing our daughter to death!" He exclaimed in fake southern accent, earning a giggle and much relief to Santana when her mother released her from her grip and instead placed a dozen kisses on her cheeks.

"Gracias, papi." He laughed, whispering _de nada _into her ear. He would _always _come to his daughters rescue. "It's good to see you again, baby girl."

Santana directed her gaze to her brother, who was watching them with a smug smile on his face. Santana clenched her jaw playfully and pulled Andre into a hug. "If we weren't in a public place I would totally beat your ass right now. That girl was a nightmare! I'm never allowing you to set me up on a date again."

He burst out laughing and as their parents shook their heads in amusement. "At least it got you out of the apartment for the night." He argued, holding his hands up in protest. Santana sneered and poked him in the ribs. "Trust me, I would much rather sit at home grading hundreds of papers than go on another date with a girl like that." She chuckled and sat next to her father, who was now busy looking at the menu.

She quickly took in the interior of the restaurant, which was just as fancy as the exterior, and she couldn't help but admit she loved this place. It was vintage but twisted with modern styles and it had just the perfect atmosphere. It wasn't loud neither busy, just how she loved to enjoy her meal.

She was debating whether to get the _pollito de olla _or _parillada _for her main causes when the waiter, whose name tag identified him as Sam, interrupted the family of four with a polite throat clearing.

"Do you have any idea what you will be ordering tonight? I could recommend some of the house favorites or personal favorites. Would you like a starter for the night?" Santana was fascinated by the size of his lips at this point, but when the word _starter _left his mouth, she immediately locked eyes with her brother as they both declared, rather excitedly, that shrimp would be their starter.

The waiter looked taken aback with their enthusiasm towards shrimp, but nevertheless wrote it down onto his small pad. "And for the parents, I presume?"

"You're right," Maribel smiled. "We're having family time, since these two always seem to forget that they actually have parents." The waiter smiled back, his eyes lingering on Andre for a couple of seconds. Santana noticed this and struggled to hold her laughter in. This Sam guy was totally gay.

"We won't be ordering a starter for ourselves, but we'd both like _salmon a la plancha _for our main courses, what do you two want? Please don't say more shrimp por el amor de dios."

Sam nodded and wrote it down onto his pad. "Spanish, I take it?"

"Puerto rican, actually. Our children were USA born and raised though." Jorge told him, he was always proud of his heritage.

"Awesome!" Sam smiled.

"Mama, I want _pollito de olla _and red wine with more shrimp." Santana cut in, the waiter was starting to annoy her, she just wanted her food, talk to her family and then her bed. It had been a long week and she wanted nothing more to sleep for more than eight hours.

"Me too, Ma." Andre told them and shut his menu, not noticing how much attention Sam's eyes were giving him.

"Well, what they said. And two rounds of shrimp, these children are going to deprive me of my hard earned money in one night." Maribel sighed, but she wasn't complaining, having both of her children with her was rare.

"Coming right up!" Sam grinned and walked towards the kitchen.

…

"Holy Mary mother of God. Mama! Why didn't you tell me about this place sooner? The food is to die for!" Santana was in food heaven, the food was the most delicious she had ever had, and she'd had _lots _of food.

"Blame your father, mija. He only brought this place back up last night. You're right though, the food is more than amazing. I'd like to personally praise the chef. Do you think we could flag the waiter back over here?"

"Andre sure could." Santana smirked, mentally congratulating herself when his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.

"What was that, sweetheart?" Jorge asked absentmindedly, obviously not catching on that Sam was the gayest of them all.

"Nothing, papi, nothing. Hey, there's the waiter. Call him over Andre."

Sighing, Andre called him over, much to Sam's delight, and asked him if he could ask the chef to come out. Sam, who was over the moon with the brief conversation, whisked away to the kitchen, and before she knew it, the most beautiful woman Santana had ever seen, was standing right in front of her.

"Can I help you?" The tall blonde asked sweetly, she was wearing an original all white chef suit, along with the hat, and Santana just about swooned.

"Oh hello dear, we're the Lopez family and I'd just like to thank you personally for cooking our delicious food tonight. I'm definitely recommending this place to my friends. Do you have a contact number for the manager of this place? I'll request for him to give you a pay raise-"

Maribel was cut off by the blonde laughing slightly, and raised her eyebrows in return.

"Actually, I'm the owner of this place, so there's no need to do that. Thank you so much for your comments about the food though, it's always nice to know that people enjoy it." She smiled and glanced over to Santana, who was still staring at her from when she appeared a few minutes ago. They locked eyes and Santana almost choked on her breath, because honestly, those eyes were the most magical things she'd ever seen. They were _so _blue and full of energy and passion, she was sure she could stare into them forever. Shaking her head of the thoughts, she caught the blondes smiling growing one bit wider before she returned her eyes to her mom.

"Well, you're a magnificent cook dear, and this place is beautiful. Do you own it with a significant other or alone?"

"At first I owned it with my mom, this place wouldn't be here without her, thus why it's called _Susan's Cookhouse, _but she handed over the full rights to me a year ago when she decided she wanted to pursue art instead. She's a crazy woman, but I love her." The blonde kept smiling and Santana could feel her heart beating faster by the second. She didn't know what was happening to her. A woman had never had this effect on her before.

"So no partner? I see no ring on your finger so I presume you're not married?.. Oh gosh, I'm really sorry for asking you such personal things. Forgive me, dear." Looking as though she was about to slap herself, Maribel gulped down the remainder of her wine.

"No, no, it's fine. I'm not in a relationship and definitely not married." Tall blonde was laughing again and Santana just about refrained herself from having a heart attack when she looked away.

"Well, we must being going. It's getting late and I have a shift tomorrow morning. Thank you for such a wonderful night. We'll be sure to come again." Maribel smiled and muttered something to Jorge about him paying the bill since it was him who suggested it. Jorge gave into his wife's requests, of course, and placed his money onto the table to cover the food costs, along with more bills as a tip, per Maribel's request.

The blonde's eyes bulged out of their sockets when she saw the man putting much more money than needed, obviously intended as the tip. She shook her head as the man handed her the money. "That's too much for the food." She insisted, pushing it back into his hand.

"You deserve the tip dear, please take it." Maribel cut in, knowing that her husband didn't know exactly what to do in these situations.

"Seriously, I can't. It's like two hundred dollars." The blonde insisted.

"You deserve it. It's yours, take it. No more arguments."

Maribel smiled when the blonde reluctantly took the money and thanked her by pulling her into a hug.

"It was a pleasure having your family tonight." Her eyes flickered over to Santana once more, before she made her way back to the kitchen with a skip in her step.

"She was delightful." Maribel happily sighed with Jorge humming in agreement whilst Andre looked bored as ever and Santana was still struggling for her breath. She couldn't believe she had just saw the most beautiful human being and didn't even say anything to her, yet alone get her name.

"I actually really need to use the bathroom, so you can all wait for me outside before we all leave." Her voice was rushed and Jorge raised an eyebrow in question. Maribel shot him a look, telling him to let it go, before her husband and two children walked towards the door.

Maribel immediately took her chance and walked towards the kitchen area where she had seen the chef disappear to just moments before.

"Excuse me?" She shouted a little through the door, mentally hitting herself across the head when she realized how rude she was being and that she could have asked the waiter to grab the chef for her again.

"Yes? Oh hi, Mrs Lopez. I thought you left?" The blonde looked shocked, yet she was still smiling, and Maribel had to admit, that was a smile she would love to see in the future. She took a breath before asking.

"I was just wondering if you, uh, would consider going on a date with my daughter?"

"_You_ came to ask _me_ if I'd go on a date with _your daughter_?" She shook her head in amusement.

"Well, yes. I knew she wasn't going to ask you herself.."

"How do you even know she would like me?"

"Mother's instinct, besides, did you see her back there at the table? She barely breathed when you were standing there. Oh no, I just realized I sound like a complete crazy. I'm not even sure you like girls the way my Santana does-"

"Her name is Santana?" The blonde smirked.

"Yes, it is."

"She has a beautiful name."

"Do you think she has a beautiful face?" The older woman back fired.

"I think your daughter is incredibly beautiful, Mrs Lopez."

"So you'd like to date her?"

"Does she even know you're here?"

"I'm supposed to be peeing right now."

The chef laughed. "You and my mother would be great friends."

"I'm sure we would, dear."

"Do you do this often?"

"Ask people to go on a date with my daughter? No. She'd refuse to speak to me for about a month."

"So what makes me the exception?" Her eyebrow was raised, trying to get all she could out of the older woman.

"I've never seen her lose her breath around a woman like that. Trust me, I've been there when a lot of pretty women crossed her path, and never, ever, has she been speechless like that."

"I'm honored, really."

"So is that a yes?"

"Of course, Mrs Lopez, I'd love to go on a date with Santana."

A sigh of relief. "Magnifico. You can call me Maribel, dear."

"And you can call me Brittany, Mrs Lopez." The blonde chuckled.

….

When Maribel returned to her family with the smuggest of grins on her face, Jorge immediately regretted letting her out of his sights.

"Honey, what did you do?" He twiddled his car keys in his ends, frowning at the woman.

"I just got our daughter a date with Brittany." She stated simply, not moving an eyelid.

"You did _what_? Who the hell is Brittany?" Santana had only just come back to her senses after daydreaming about the beautiful blonde chef.

"I got you a date with Brittany."

"And does it come to mind that I don't know who Brittany even is?" Santana demanded, pacing back and forth.

"Brittany is the precious women who just served our food." Her mother smiled and took her husband's hand, who still didn't understand what was happening.

Up until then, Santana was about to go into bitch mode on her mother until she realized just who Brittany was.

"Oh." Was all she said.

"Yes, oh." Maribel smirked and walked towards her car.

…..

She pulled her car into the street her mother had given the address for, and looked for house number 20. After realizing there were literally only twenty houses in the area, she drove all the way down the road and stopped outside of a modern two story home. It had a beautiful garden that looked well taken care of, and a white picket fence (of course) around it.

She nervously walked up the path and knocked on the door, holding her breath, awaiting the beauty that was about to meet her eyes. When the door was pulled open and her brown eyes met blue, she felt like she was falling and closed her eyes in content before she heard the cutest giggle.

"Hi." Brittany breathed out, affected by the beauty in front of her just as much as her company.

It was a barely there whisper, but Santana responded instantly, despite the growing nerves in her stomach. "Hey."

They stared at each other for a few silent moments, neither one breaking eye contact when Brittany broke the silence. "It's so good to finally hear you speak," the giggle was back, "We didn't really get a chance to talk at the restaurant, your mother did all the talking for you."

Santana blushed, even though she always claimed that as a latina, she couldn't blush. "Yeah, about that. It was totally lame and I understand if you don't want to do this, I mean, we don't even know each other." She clicked her tongue when Brittany's smile dropped.

"Does this mean you don't want to do this? Because I know I want to and I know I may be lame but you could at least.. try to like me?" It looked as though she was about to cry and Santana just about had a heart attack with the thought. There was no way in hell she was going to hurt this girl before their impending date even started.

"Nooo, no, no. _Of course _I want to do this. I do. It's just, I thought it would be overwhelming for you that my mother would ask you on a date with me after eating at your restaurant once. Are you not weirded out by that?"

When Brittany heard the sincerity in Santana's voice, she knew she wanted this more than anything now. "It was a strange experience to say the least, but who would pass up on a date with somebody as beautiful as you?"

The blush in her cheeks was back. "I wanted to ask you myself. I _would've _asked you myself."

"You didn't even speak to me in the restaurant." Brittany countered. It was undeniable that their first interaction was brief, non-existent even, however, this didn't feel the slightest bit awkward.

"Could you blame me? I was breath taken by you."

"Your mom mentioned something about it." There was that giggle Santana already loved so much.

"So how about we do this date? There's not much to lose right?" Santana faltered, awaiting Brittany's answer.

"Well what do you have planned?" There was a huge beam across the blonde's face and Santana couldn't help but mirror it.

"I was thinking we could skip the traditional first date and leave the fancy restaurant out, because you work in a restaurant so I thought that'd be, I don't know, boring? Maybe we could go to the movies and pig out on huge amounts of popcorn? Or would you rather do something else because that's totally lame-"

"Santana?"

"Huh?"

"You're cute when you ramble. It's a perfect date. Let's go."

And Santana? She just about fell in love.

…..

Throughout the entire movie she kept sneaking glances at Brittany and every once in a while caught the blonde doing the same, which lead to red cheeked women facing back towards the screen but wearing the biggest smiles. She felt as content as ever when Brittany lifted the arm rest between them and placed the popcorn in the middle, moving that bit closer so that their arms were pressed together.

It turned out that the movie Brittany had picked, has actually been pretty good. Well, the parts she saw when she wasn't looking at Brittany. She found it extremely cute how the blonde placed two popcorn pieces at a time into her mouth, never any more, never any less, and would chew them four times before swallowing. She knew she sounded creepy, but she just didn't care.

She found out many things about Brittany that night. Like how she enjoyed skiing but absolutely detested the cold. How she always wanted to marry Jasmine from Aladdin, which caused a shudder deep inside Santana, because hello, the similarities between her and Jasmine were undeniable. She felt her heart warm when Brittany told her she wanted more than two children because she never had any siblings growing up, however, having Sam as her cousin didn't make her childhood _that _boring. She loved how Brittany told her she was so close to her parents and that her mom and Santana's mom were so alike.

She didn't miss the way Brittany's eyes lit up when she told her that she was a history teacher in a private school. She didn't care when Brittany asked her every imaginable thing she could think of about history, in fact, she found it amazing that somebody was so interested by history like she was.

When they were driving back to Brittany's house, Santana felt eyes on her the whole way, and she couldn't help but admit she did like that someone found her so alluring that they would stare at her for so long. She liked it even more because it was Brittany staring at her.

Santana sighed when she pulled into Brittany's street, knowing this night was coming to an end. She looked over to her blonde company and smiled when she saw that she was already looking at her.

"Can I walk you to the door?" Santana asked her when the car stopped. Brittany's grin grew even wider as she nodded and unbuckled her seat belt.

It was a short silent walk to the front door, with Santana admiring the blonde's beauty in the moonlight, and Brittany doing just the same. They were both wearing content smiles as they got to the door and turned to face each other.

"I had a really, _really _great time tonight." Santana admitted.

"I had a really, really, _really _amazing time tonight," Brittany smiled, taking a deep breath. "Can we do this again sometime soon?"

"You really want to? Yes! I mean, of course we can. How about next week?"

The blonde's smile was almost blinding, and Santana wanted to do nothing but make it appear again nd again.

"I'll see you next week." A kiss to the cheek, and Brittany was gone.

…

It was their fourth date and this time, Brittany was taking them. When the blonde pulled up in front of the most recent carnival to come to town, Santana's eyes shone with the brightest of lights.

"You brought me to a carnival?" She questioned, with her eyebrow raised.

"Do you not like carnivals? I can take you somewhere else, I just thought it would be fun." Brittany frowned, not noticing the way Santana's lips curled up.

"No, no. I _love _carnivals. I think it's great that you brought me to one." She smiled affectionately, grabbing the blondes hand over the center piece of the car. "Let's go then." And she was out of the door, jogging lightly as she laughed at Brittany struggling to quickly lock the door.

"Hurry up, slow coach! We need to ride _everything_!" In the short time she'd known her, and the few times she saw her, Santana took Brittany's breath away so many times, but this time, she looked so carefree and Brittany felt her heart pounding in her chest when she caught up with her and made eye contact the brunette.

"Only if you hold my hand on _everything_." She whispered, not breaking the intense staring contest.

"Deal." Santana whispered back, taking Brittany's hand with the gentlest of touches and pulling her towards the carnival entrance.

When Santana took out her purse to pay for the entrance fees, Brittany almost _almost _kissed Santana senseless since she insisted so bad to pay, but the blonde won her over after reminding her countless times that she paid for the last date, and if she wanted she could pay for the _next _one, and Santana reluctantly agreed to keep her purse away tonight.

They started off on the simple rides. The ferris wheel was first and both women found themselves inching closer to one another, and they both couldn't help but admit the feeling of just being close to each other was enough to make them glow for days.

Next they went on the bumper cars, and Santana practically flung herself into the same car as Brittany, making their thighs press together because the car was so small, but she loved the way she still got tingles even through clothes. Since Brittany had the longest legs, she pressed the pedal and Santana drove, crashing into everyone and anyone near her. Both women were a laughing mess when they exited the ride, nevertheless still gripping each other's hands.

They went to the flying swings next, both feeling a pang of disappointment when they realized they would have to ride separately, but Santana quickly got over it when Brittany reminded her that they would be riding every else _together _and quickly got into her seat. Even though the blonde was behind her on the ride, she missed her terribly and wished they were sitting next to one another so they could laugh and admire the views together.

When the ride was stopped, Santana found herself running to Brittany immediately and taking her hand, once again, to lead her elsewhere.

"Can we go on the ghost cart?" Brittany asked her when she saw the large ghoul sign in the near distance.

"Uhm.." Santana stuttered, her inner self praying that there was no ghost cart thing here.

"Are you scared, Santana?" The blonde laughed.

"Scared?" Santana scoffed, "I'm not scared of anything." She muttered, not meeting her date's eyes.

"Yeah, and I'm the Queen of England." Brittany giggled and took Santana's hand. "Come on babe, I'll keep you safe."

Santana's mouth dropped open at the word babe, but Brittany didn't notice and continued pulling her to the direction of the ghost cart ride. When they arrived, Brittany _did _notice how Santana stopped walking with her when they were about to join the line, and turned to face her.

"You're really scared to go on it, aren't you?"

Santana sighed. "I don't have very happy memories of this ride. Back when I was young my older cousins managed to make the controllers malfunction and as a result trap me in the dark for two hours with nothing but creepy ghost sounds and zombies popping out of the walls every ten seconds. I vowed to never go on one again."

Brittany clicked her tongue. "Your cousins are kinda assholes," Santana nodded, agreeing with the blonde, "and since you don't want wanna ride the ghost cart, you can ride me instead." She winked.

"What?!" Santana spluttered, almost choking on her own saliva with the thoughts of her riding Brittany's thigh when they were doing... stuff.

The blonde turned around, "You're thinking about literally riding me, aren't you?" The huge smile was back that Santana loved so much. "I know I'm hot but gosh!" She mocked in a sweet voice, leaving the latina too embarrassed to even face her.

"I'm kidding, San. Jump on, you can _ride _me this way." She offered her back, motioning for the smaller girl to jump on, which she did after minimal protests, ignoring the looks from passersby.

"To the cotton candy stand!" She ordered playfully, shrieking when Brittany started running with her towards the small pink stall. "Anything for you, m'lady," the blonde responded when they'd reached the cotton candy stand. Brittany paid for both girls cotton sticks, much to the annoyance of Santana, which the blonde stuck her tongue out to in response.

They decided to ride a few more things before heading out to the diner Brittany had suggester for dinner, and they made sure they were all rides where they could sit together. Santana was sure she was going to hyperventilate from laughing so much, much to Brittany's amusement.

They were heading back to Brittany's car when Santana squealed and dragged the confused blonde to a dark corner of the carnival.

"Santana?" She husked out, quite scared by now. "Where are you taking me?"

"To the photo booth, silly." Santana winked, and pulled Brittany inside a small booth with her. It wasn't big enough for the both of them to sit, so the smaller woman sat down first and pulled Brittany to her lap, wrapping her arms around her waist, eliciting a small giggle from the blonde. It was an intimate position to be in on the fourth date, and it was almost like they were a couple, but it felt so good that she didn't care.

"I'm gonna squash you, you big doofus." Brittany kept on giggling. Santana rolled her eyes and squeezed her tighter around the waist, craning her neck upwards so she could rest her chin on Brittany's shoulders. "You're a lightweight, please, you feel like a feather." She wasn't lying.

Brittany clicked her tongue and booped Santana on the nose. "If you say so."

Santana sighed and nudged Brittany's cheek with her nose, relishing in the feeling of being this close to the blonde. She twisted so she could get her purse and handing the five dollars to the blonde to insert into the machine, with a pointed look of no arguments, the blonde did and settled back into Santana's lap.

"You know what? I can't do this anymore." Brittany admitted.

Santana's mouth dropped open and her lips quivered so much that it looked like she was about to cry. "What do you mean?" She stuttered. "Don't you want to date me anymore? Did I do something wrong?"

Brittany looked taken aback by the small outburst, so she cupped Santana's cheeks with such gentle care and looked her straight into her eyes. "What I meant is that I can't be in your company any longer without kissing you. Can I please, _please_ kiss you, Santana?"

All it took was a nod before their lips connected and long fingers were stroking tan cheeks. Neither of them tried to deepen the kiss, they were comfortable with just the feeling of their lips together.

Brittany pulled back first, a giddy smile taking place on her face. Santana, who was flustered and very frustrated in many ways, but nevertheless smiled back at her, equally giddy.

"Amazing." Was the one word that was muttered between humid breaths before lips were smacking together once more.

…

**Leave as a one shot or continue?**


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Glee, Romance